After three hours of testimony at the standing room only meeting Tuesday night, the ZBA voted 3-1 to grant Salomon the variance that will allow him to subdivide his lot into one conforming two-acre lot and one nonconforming lot that falls 0.12 acres short of town's two-acre zoning ordinance.

"The Board of Adjustment does not have to accept the set conclusions of experts but rather to properly rely on its own knowledge of the area in which the variance is sought," said the ZBA's Susan Halliday Smith reading aloud from the "New Hampshire Planning and Land Use Regulations" book, which outlines planning and zoning statutes.

"We all live in North Hampton. I live on Woodland Road and therefore I vote yes," Halliday Smith said, casting the final vote of criteria approval, which says the variance will not diminish surrounding properties' values.

Halliday Smith led the meeting in the absence of ZBA Chairman John Anthony Simmons and Vice Chairman Ted Turchan. Alternate ZBA members Ron Dupuis and Paul Marston sat on the board though Marston abstained on Salomon's application since he was not present for the first round of testimony at the ZBA's May 22 meeting when the application was first presented. Dupuis cast the lone dissenting vote, saying he would have been inclined to approve the request if Salomon had lived there longer but that ultimately the impact of granting the variance would be too great.

"I do feel that because you are who you are and do what you do, people came here to fight against you," Dupuis told Salomon, who, in addition to being a selectman is also a lawyer and former Planning Board member.

When abutters and legal counsel tried to raise the fact Salomon's status as a selectman was pertinent to the case, Halliday Smith quickly stated his position had no bearing.

"This is John Q. Public as far as this board is concerned," Halliday Smith told abutter Shane Smith, who said Salomon's position in town was a factor distinguishing the case from being the "garden variety," as it was referred to by Salomon's lawyer Peter Loughlin.

"If you can't even consider a variance in this type of situation then there's really no reason for this board to sit," Loughlin said of the variance request.

Loughlin also said the subdivision would not affect the town's rural character as people suggested.

"It's gonna be one house," Loughlin said. "The point is, is it going to diminish the value of surrounding properties, and I'm suggesting it isn't."

Salomon said he hired an appraiser who confirmed this, but abutting residents were not convinced.

"Proximity builds and tears down the value of property," said Smith, a real estate investor. "It will devalue the surrounding properties."

Opponents of the variance said in addition to environmental ramifications of fragmenting the land, the town would jeopardize its two-acre zoning ordinance by subverting it in this instance.

"This is kind of like, I think, somebody with a sledgehammer hitting away at the dike," said resident Jon Rineman of Woodland Road, regarding the potential of the variance to set a precedent. "Once this dike gets broken, there's gonna be no putting the water back and it's just gonna be one after another."

"The vote tonight is not setting a precedent one way or the other," Halliday Smith said before putting the application to a vote.

"It's exactly what I expected," Shane Smith said of the variance approval, adding he thinks the ZBA had its mind made up since the May 22 meeting.

"I'm embarrassed," said North Hampton Forever Co-Chairman Phil Wilson, who presented the ZBA with information indicating the town's efforts to preserve open space in an attempt to show granting the variance is contrary to public interest.

An applicant must meet five criteria in order to get a variance approval including proving it is not contrary to public interest.

"The town has expressed its views...; and that should be relevant to the board," said Attorney Scott Hogan, who represents Bruce and Rita Dow of Woodland Drive.

The Dows live next door to Salomon. Hogan said Bruce Dow, who built the house in 1962 and retired this year after a career as a carpenter and fireman, relied on the two-acre zoning ordinance to protect the privacy of his home.

"Everyone's relied on those protections," said Hogan who added the proposed house site is immediately over the property boundary, just within the setback.

Salomon said the lot subdivision would keep a 35-foot wooded buffer between the new lot and the Dows' property.

"One of the reasons we bought the property was for its subdivision value," Salomon said after the meeting, adding he doesn't feel he is disrespecting the town by seeking the variance. "The rules include the right to seek a variance if the strict application of the ordinance is burdensome."

Salomon also said he doesn't believe subdividing the land disrespects his neighbors.

"What I think being neighborly means is respecting each other's property rights," he said. "For me to give up my property rights because a neighbor wants to enjoy my property at my expense, that's not being neighborly or respectful."

The abutters at the meeting disagreed with Salomon's concept of being neighborly.

Hogan said he will file a motion for a rehearing on the case within the next 30 days. The ZBA then has 30 days from that point to approve or deny the motion. If it denies the motion or approves the rehearing but sticks with its decision to grant the variance, the Dows could take the issue to Superior Court, Hogan said.

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